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As with its laptops, Apple displays remarkable consistency in customer satisfaction with its desktops, according to our survey respondents. The company received an overall satisfaction rating of 9.2, the same score that it had in each of the prior two years and the same score that Apple customers have rated their laptops for the last six years. Apple continues to set a very high bar that other desktop manufacturers have yet to meet, and once again, it receives our Readers' Choice Award for desktops.

While its competition may not be able to deliver quite the satisfaction that Apple has, each year they inch closer. In fact, whereas Apple's overall satisfaction rating hasn't changed in recent days, every other company has improved since last year.

Red denotes Readers' Choice.Blue denotes Honorable Mention.

Asus earns a Readers' Choice for the third straight year. Overall satisfaction was rated 8.7, up from 8.5 in 2012. Satisfaction with reliability improved from 8.7 to 8.9 and only five percent of Asus PCs needed repairs within the last 12 months, nearly half the rate of last year's nine percent. Asus's likelihood to recommend also went up this year going from 8.5 to 8.7.

Acer made a dramatic swing in the desktop market, going from one of the lowest ratings for overall satisfaction in 2012 (7.6) to the third best (8.4) and earning the company an Honorable Mention. Acer's subsidiary, Gateway, followed closely behind with overall satisfaction of 8.3. Both brands had identical satisfaction with reliability ratings (8.5), though Acer users are more likely to recommend their PCs compared with Gateway users (8.3 versus 7.9).

We were very pleased to see that all of the desktop manufacturers received overall satisfaction ratings greater than 8.0. In addition, the two most popular brandsDell and HPimproved tremendously in satisfaction with technical support and repairs. Dell received ratings of 6.9 in both measures in 2012. This year, satisfaction with support rated 7.3 and repairs rated 7.7. HP's numbers were slightly behind Dell at 7.2 (support) and 7.4 (repairs), but these are both improvements of nearly a full point compared with 2012 and can all be considered very good satisfaction ratings.

Apple also saw marked improvement in support satisfaction this year. While it has never been a slouch in this department, both satisfaction with tech support and repairs are up at least half a point to 8.7 and 8.5, respectively. Our only concern with Apple is that the percentage of units needing repairs jumped from 10 percent last year to 13 percent. Only Gateway had a larger percentage of units needing repairs (16 percent).

Apple and Lenovo receive our Readers' Choice Award for desktops that are less than a year old. In contrast to its overall repair rate, Apple had the lowest percentage of new computers needing repairs (six percent), tied with HP. Lenovo had the highest overall satisfaction rating among Windows PC brands at 8.6, just slightly ahead of HP and Dell, and satisfaction with reliability was rated at a very good 8.8, tied with HP.

Red denotes Readers' Choice.

In the home PC market, Apple and Asus again earn Readers' Choice Awards. The home ratings were very consistent with the overall ratings. Just five percent of Asus home desktops needed repairs this year, down from 12 percent last year. Only Lenovo had a smaller percentage needing repairs (four percent). In our other key satisfaction measures, Lenovo trailed very closely behind Asus and earns an Honorable Mention.

Red denotes Readers' Choice.Blue denotes Honorable Mention.

As in 2012, Apple is the only company to earn a Readers' Choice in the work desktop category. Whereas Apple maintained its consistently high satisfaction ratings, Dell, Lenovo, and HP all had overall satisfaction ratings below 8.0. If there is a bright spot here, it is that satisfaction improved for all three companies over last year. We're hopeful that this continues so that Windows PC customers can have a brand choice that gets them excited in the future.

Category: Overall/Work/Home/Less Than a Year OldApple, Inc.
Apple continues to deliver the most satisfying experience for its customers, according to our survey results. While the percentage of units needing repairs increased compared with last year, we were pleased to see substantial improvements in satisfaction with Apple's already excellent technical support and repair service.

Category: Less Than a Year OldHome Lenovo
Lenovo is the top-rated desktop PC manufacturer for systems less than a year old. We hope that the company's customers continue to be highly satisfied with their systems as the computers age.

Category: OverallAcer, Inc.
Satisfaction with Acer desktops improved dramatically this year to the point where it is rated higher than every other Windows desktop PC company except Asus.

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